After the success of its SF-1200 (1222) controller, virtually every SSD maker was eager to climb aboard the SandForce express. That bandwagon continued trucking through last year, as the second-gen SF-2200 (2281) powered many of 2011's noteworthy flash drives -- OCZ's Vertex 3 among them. Even Kingston, which previously used Toshiba chips, adopted SandForce's SF-2200 starting with last year's HyperX line.

It's unclear when SandForce's next controllers will arrive, but in the meantime, companies seem to be making the most of its second-gen chips. Kingston, for instance, has released a pair of new SF-2281-based drives said to emphasize speed and affordability: the HyperX 3K and the SSDNow V+200. The former is aimed at enthusuasts and uses synchronous memory, while the latter uses cheaper asynchronous memory.